That's the finger-pointing message of a four-page mailer sent out from Solana Beach's City Hall.

Why the reverse mea culpa – and why now?

Cedros Crossing, the mixed-used train station project approved in concept in 1991, is brain-dead. The plug will be pulled at a City Council meeting tomorrow evening.

In advance of the expected last rites, the city spent more than a thousand taxpayer dollars to make council members, several of whom are up for re-election in November, appear blameless.

Thankfully, this marathon dance is down to its last stumbling steps. It's time they shot the horses, don't you think?

Now if a pistol were put to my head, I'd have to say macroeconomics fatally wounded Cedros Crossing, not arrogant developers or even city micromanagement.

The North County Transit District property by the train station is the right place for dense housing, but it appears to be the wrong point in history to build it. As the housing market has gone south, the dollars haven't been there to appease the influential locals for whom size really matters.

For its part, the NCTD, strapped by Sprinter overruns, couldn't make up financial gaps in a six-year-old residential/commercial deal that's turned sour over time.

Shea Properties, the developer that seven years ago entered into a lease agreement with the NCTD, maintained that it couldn't go smaller than 120-plus apartments (plus a parking garage and commercial space).

Meanwhile, the council majority couldn't look their constituents in the face without exacting dramatic concessions on “mass and scale.”

Back to the mailer.

In sending out a document answering 10 “frequently asked questions,” the city protests its innocence too much, I think.

As I say, I don't think the council majority is solely responsible for cutting off the tax-generating project's oxygen. Still, politicians shouldn't use public funds to win friends and influence history.

For example, Question No. 4 reads: “Is it typical for a project to take this long?”

The answer begins: “Yes, it is typical for a project of this complexity to take three or more years to complete the EIR, review and approval process.”

The answer's unstated subtext: Shea is blowing smoke when it whines about the length of time it's taken to get Cedros Crossing approved (or, in this case, not approved). Back in 2002, when the developer started holding the first of 30 community meetings, Shea should have known that approval by 2008 was a pipe dream!

Six, seven years? Typical? In what Kafkaesque world?

The council appears intent on placing the stigma of failure squarely on Shea – and its partner the NCTD – for the torturous march to impasse.

Well, OK. That's politics. But when it comes to a political mailer, designed to deflect blame, candidates, not the taxpayers, should pay for the paper and stamps.

Last week, Shea released a statement putting the city on notice that if it doesn't approve its Cedros Crossing design tomorrow night, a $6 million state grant will be lost. Moreover, as Shea's attorneys reminded in a letter, the city runs the risk of a lawsuit over the loss of the project's low-income housing element.

“The time has come for (the council) to take a stand,” Shea intoned, knowing full well the council majority would rather gargle with anthrax than reverse course.

Tomorrow's meeting boils down to this:

Greg Shannon, Shea's representative, will say that he has gone as low as he can go on the number of apartments. It's all about the money.

The council will say it has acted in good faith but it cannot accept 120-plus apartments. It's all about the mass.

Once those polar points have been nailed into the coffin, the only thing left to do is figure out how to bury this bulky body of work.

Conceivably, Shea could walk away or perhaps go to court for relief or – and this seems the more sensible course – ask the city to stipulate exactly what it wants, obtain a project approval, and then sell the dream to another developer, thus recouping a portion of Shea's sunk costs, which exceed $3 million.

Down the line, as the housing bust bubbles back, another developer might resurrect a Cedros Crossing that yields more parking for the NCTD while creating a landmark residential/commercial complement to the Cedros Design District.

What's ultimately needed are fresh legs in a revived economy.

The relationship between Shea-NCTD and the council majority has been toxic for a long time. Recently, they haven't even talked to each other. They've been locked in an exhausted embrace as the band played on.